Social learning has been characterized as the latest and greatest thing to come to the corporate world since the W2 form. It’s a nice narrative and helps consultants sell their services. But social learning has been going back to the days of cave paintings. Hunters communicated to work together and learn the techniques necessary to hunt enough prey to survive. Kids learn social survival skills on the playground and customer service reps pick up tips and hints from their coworkers.

We recognize the names of the social media tools that have become prevalent in society. Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and facebook are household names. The problem is that the focus is often on the tool used, rather than the purpose we use it for.

As the saying goes, “a fool with a tool is still a fool.” We can have great tools to work with, but if we use them the wrong way, we will fail to be effective.

To ensure that we use these tools effectively, we need to really think about what we are trying to accomplish. We have to consider what we are doing and what benefit it provides to the organization.